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Raffles Junior College
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| Motto | Auspicium Melioris Aevi |
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| Established | 1982 |
| Type | Independent, Full-day |
| Principal | Winston James Hodge |
| School code | 0704 |
| Colours | Green, black, white |
| Locale | Bishan, Singapore |
| Enrollment | Approx. 2500 |
| Website | Link |
 Republic of Singapore |
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Raffles Junior College (abbr. RJC, or, commonly, RJ) is a prestigious[1] junior college in Singapore offering a two-year course for students. It is located in Bishan beside the campus of Raffles Institution. It was consistently ranked among Singapore's top few junior colleges, until the ranking of junior colleges was discontinued in 2004.[1] On average, 95% of RJC graduates attend university, many on scholarships.[2]
Many students from Raffles Junior College have gone on to attend the best universities in the world, including Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, The University of Chicago, and Ivy League schools in America. A Wall Street Journal article in 2004 identified Raffles Junior College as the high school outside the USA that sent the most students to elite American colleges, topping the rate of many elite prep schools in America.[1] The Economist featured an article in 2002 in which Raffles Junior College was awarded the title "Gateway to the Ivy League" for having sent the highest number of students to the Ivy League schools internationally.
In the 2005 GCE 'A' Level Examination, Raffles Junior College has obtained the best results in 25 years since its establishment, with 59.2% of the class of 2005 scoring 4 'A' Level distinctions and 76.4% scoring 3 or more 'A' Level distinctions.
The current Principal of the school is Winston James Hodge (2001 – present).
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Raffles Junior College was established to provide pre-university classes which were then discontinued in Raffles Institution (RI), in keeping with national trends. Since then, it has excelled in both academic and non-academic fields, developing "fine traditions and excellent spirit". There is a distinct school spirit, termed the Rafflesian Spirit, which bonds Rafflesians near and far, past and present, in common purpose and determination.
In 1982, RI’s pre-university section was transferred to a temporary campus at Paterson Road. RJC was then established to offer the GCE 'A' Level curriculum. It was the first junior college to be established with both JC1 and JC2 students, with the JC2 students having just completed their Pre-U Year 1 in RI.
RJC then moved to Mt Sinai Road in 1984 which provided better facilities and a larger site to cater to junior college education. It was the college's home for the next 21 years.
On 29 December 2004, RJC held its moving ceremony from its previous Mount Sinai campus to Bishan Street 21 beside RI, where students took a specially chartered MRT train to Bishan and walked to their new campus.
On 1 January 2005, the junior college became an independent institution, only the second JC to be accorded this status after Hwa Chong Junior College (now Hwa Chong Institution) a year earlier. In the same year, RJC became the first junior college to be awarded the School Excellence Award. This is the highest award in the MOE Masterplan of Awards.
The new Bishan campus has been officially opened by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 8 April 2006, in conjunction with the college's 25th Anniversary celebrations.
Mr Rudy Mosbergen 1982-1987
Mr Lee Fong Seng 1988-2000
The College Anthem of RJC is the same as the Institution Anthem of Raffles Institution. It was written by E. W. Jesudason (Principal of RI 1963–1966), and retained by RJC since it was born from the bosom of RI.
Auspicium Melioris Aevi
When Stamford Raffles held the torch
That cast Promethean Flame
We faced the challenge of the day
To give our school a name
The eagle eye and gryphon strength
They led us to the fore
To reign supreme in ev'ry sphere
The sons of Singapore
Come heed the call Rafflesians all
And let our hearts be stirring
We'll do our best whate'er test
And keep our colours flying
Let comradeship and fervent hope
With one voice make us pray
Auspicium Melioris Aevi
With God to guide the way
RJC is affiliated to both Raffles Institution and Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) (RGS). It shares its school anthem and school crest with RI.
RJC's new Bishan campus is adjacent to RI. The two schools run open concept campuses, where there is no fence separating them. Students of both schools may access both campuses, and the facilities between the schools are shared, such as for use by CCAs. Both schools also share a common driveway and main gate. RJC's Block A is linked to the new 7-storey academic block, the S. Rajaratnam Block in RI by a bridge, which provides a seamless link between RI's main block and RJC.
The college uniform for RJC boys is largely similar to that for RI boys, with the main differences lying in the pleat at the back of the shirt, upturned sleeves which are sewn down, pleats in the long pants and the material of the shirt and long pants, which is cotton. RJC girls wear a white, short-sleeved blouse with a green pleated skirt. The college badge retains the old RI design, where RI modified its badge slightly in the 1990s.
RJC currently offers the Raffles Programme (RP), an Integrated Programme which takes students all the way from Secondary 1 to JC2, skipping the GCE 'O' Level Examinations. Students spend the first four years in RI or RGS, and the last two years in RJC. The college's enrollment increased from 2100 to 2500 when the first batch of students in the Raffles Programme entered in 2006.
In May 2005, RJC introduced the house system which replaced its faculty system. This was due to the large imbalance of people taking different subject combinations in recent years. For example, the Engineering and Arts Faculties combined was smaller than the Medicine Faculty in 2005. Other reasons include the pioneer batch of students in the Raffles Programme entering RJC in 2006, the major change in the Singapore junior college education system from 2006 which discourages students from taking "triple science" (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), as well as the fact that Computing and Further Mathematics are no longer offered. These are the faculties from the old system that have ceased to exist:
Arts (Red) (A01, A02, A03, A04) (Formerly "Arts and Commerce" until Commerce ceased to be offered from 2000)
Commerce (Black) (C0X) (Merged with Arts to become "Arts and Commerce" in the 1990s)
Computing and Pure Science (Green) (S04, S05, S06, S07)
Engineering (Blue) (S01, S02)
Medicine (Yellow) (S03)
Note: In 2005, the Medicine Faculty was split into MedFac 1 and MedFac 2 due to the large population.
Students from RI and RGS remain in their original houses while students from other schools will be evenly allocated into the five houses. The names of the Houses are merged from RI and RGS as follows:
Bayley-Waddle (Yellow)
Buckle-Buckley (Green)
Hadley-Hullett (Purple/Black)
Moor-Tarbet (Red)
Morrison-Richardson (Blue)
RJC's new campus in Bishan has an area of 86,500 square metres, located within 11 blocks and 7 floors. Students attend lectures in lecture theatres and tutorial lessons in the tutorial rooms in Blocks A and B. All tutorial rooms are currently fitted with air-conditioning to provide a more conducive environment for learning. After academic lessons, tutorial rooms are sometimes used by students for self-study or for CCA purposes.
Notable facilities include an 850-seater lecture theatre, a Performing Arts Centre and an Indoor Sports Hall. "Chat Rooms" are provided for individual teacher-pupil conferencing. The 3-storey Shaw Foundation Library is also frequented by students, especially during the common test and examination periods. All parts of the campus are linked by a wide network of walkways and ramps. Lifts that serve all floors are located in Blocks C, D and H.
Similar to its counterpart at Raffles Institution and Raffles Girls' School, RJC boosts over seventy CCAs which are divided into three categories: sports groups, musical groups, clubs and societies. Unlike in the affiliated secondary schools, there is no distinction made between core and merit CCAs and students are free to choose their combination of CCAs. Technically, there is no limit to the number of CCAs one can join, but it is recommended that a student should take two CCAs in order to be able to juggle his or her studies with CCAs.
All members of the RJC Students' Council, are selected through an annual college-wide election. Throughout its one-year term, the council organises projects and functions for the college, such as orientation, graduation night and open house. The council also rallies student support for important competitions that the college participates in.
The council is subdivided into various departments:
- Communications Department, otherwise known as CommzD
- CCA Department (Co-curricular activities), otherwise termed CCAD
- Welfare Department
- House Directorate
The Presidents, Heads of Departments, House Captains as well as the secretary and treasurer form the council executive committee.
Every council batch goes through a council camp, which serves as the initiating event for the incoming council, and a closure to the term of the outgoing council. This camp is followed by the Council Investiture.
- Alfian Sa'at - Writer, poet and playwright
- Bukoh Mary - Y.E.S 93.3 FM Radio DJ
- Kit Chan - Singer
- Corrinne May - Singer-songwriter
- Kaira Gong - Singer
- Rui En - Actress, singer
- Selena Tan - Actress
- Pamela Oei - Actress
- Dawn Yang - Blogger
- Daniel Sassoon - Guitarist (Electrico)
- ^ a b Prystay, Cris, Elizabeth Bernstein. "Gateway to the Ivy League", 'Wall Street Journal', May 6, 2004, pp. B1. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
| edit |  Pre-University Centres and Post-Secondary Institutes in Singapore |
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|---|---|---|
| Pre-universities | Anderson JC (AJC) • Anglo-Chinese JC (ACJC) • Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) (ACS-I) • Catholic JC (CJC) • Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) • Innova JC (IJC) • Jurong JC (JJC) • Meridian JC (MJC) • Millennia Institute (MI) • Nanyang JC (NYJC) • National JC (NJC) • Pioneer JC (PJC) • Raffles JC (RJC) • St. Andrew's JC (SAJC) • Serangoon JC (SRJC) • Tampines JC (TPJC) • Temasek JC (TJC) • Victoria JC (VJC) • Yishun JC (YJC) | |
| Polytechnics | Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) • Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) • Republic Polytechnic (RP) • Singapore Polytechnic (SP) • Temasek Polytechnic (TP) | |
| ITE Colleges | ITE College East (ITE CE-SM) • ITE College West (ITE CW) • ITE College Central (ITE CC) |